Local News

The pilot of a single-engine plane that crashed Wednesday near North Bend has been identified by a family member as a 30-year-old Federal Way man.

Rob Marshall Hill was a swim coach at Decatur High School, where he had graduated in 1999. He also coached the Valley Aquatics Swim Team in South King County, according to his sister, Becca Goode of Federal Way.

Hill was a pilot and a private flight instructor, according to his sister.

Seth Dawson, also a swim instructor at Valley Aquatics Swim Team, was identified by his relatives as another victim of the crash. The 31-year-old native of Vancouver, Wash., was swim coach at Kentlake High School.

The identity of the third crash victim, Liz Redling, 29, of Federal Way, was confirmed by a woman who answered the phone at her house, but she declined to speak further.

The King County Medical Examiner's Office had not officially released the names of the crash victims.

A candlelight vigil for the victims will be held at Decatur High School, at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Hill was a popular and well-loved coach, known for his encouragement and kindness, Goode said.

"He was a wonderful coach because he would find the best in everybody," she said. "He was the person who looked at people's interior strengths and then had them build on that."

Goode said her family does not know of any particular flight plans her brother had, and they are speculating that he and the two other victims had simply gone for a night flight when the Cessna crashed into Little Si, near Mount Si.

The probe into the cause of Wednesday's crash will focus on the weather, the pilot's background and the aircraft's maintenance, investigators said.

According to Mike Fergus, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, preliminary information indicates the crash occurred between 1:30 and 2 a.m.

Cindi West, spokeswoman for the King County Sheriff's Office, said two deputies on patrol heard an explosion and began searching for the wreckage. Neighbors also reported hearing a "sputter, pop and an explosion," she said.

"I heard it crash into a sheer cliff, and indeed that's what's up there," North Bend resident Terry Jensen told KING-TV. "It's a tragedy."

An emergency transmitter was either activated on impact or by someone in the single-engine Cessna, said Tom Peterson, aviation emergency-services coordinator for the state Department of Transportation. While the sheriff's helicopter followed the signal to the crash site, searchers using night-vision goggles spotted aircraft debris hanging from broken tree branches, Deputy Ken O'Neal said.

Ground searchers reached the crash site at daylight and found the bodies of the victims, West said.

One of the bodies was carried by a search-and-rescue team more than a mile through rugged terrain, according to the Sheriff's Office. The other two victims were airlifted by helicopter to a medical examiner's van near North Bend.

Little was immediately known about the plane's itinerary, according to Fergus. He said the pilot had not been in contact with air traffic control.

Nighttime flying under visual rules without contacting air traffic control is permitted and not unusual, said National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator Wayne Pollack.

The Cessna 172 was registered to Christiansen Aviation in Wilmington, Del., according to Fergus.

Eric Housman, an employee of Christiansen Aviation, said that the company leases planes to flight schools all over the country and that he had no information about the people in the crash.

It can take an NTSB investigator months to determine a probable cause for accidents, Fergus said.

Christine Clarridge can be reached at cclarridge@seattletimes.com or 206-464-8983.

Seattle Times staff reporter Jennifer Sullivan and news researchers Miyoko Wolf and Gene Balk contributed to this report, which includes information from The Associated Press.